What Drives Your Life?

 

 

 

What on Earth Am I Here For?

 

A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;

a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

Proverbs 11:28

 

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord....

They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with

roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees

are not bothered by the heat or worried by long

months of drought. Their leaves stay green,

and they go right on producing delicious fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

 

 

What Drives Your Life?

 

I observed that the basic motive for sucess

is the driving force of envy and jealousy!

Ecclesiastes 4:4

 

The man without a purpose is like

a ship without a rudder—a waif,

a nothing, a no man.

Thomas Carlyle

 

 

Everyone's life is driven by something.

Most dictionaries define the verb drive as

"to guide, to control, or to direct."

What is the driving force in your life?

 

Here are five of the most common ones:

 

Many people are driven by guilt.

They allow their past to control their future.

When Cain sinned,

his guilt disconnected him from God's presence,

and God said,

"You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

Genesis 4:12

 

God's purpose is not limited by your past.

God specializes in giving people a fresh start.

"What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!...

What relief for those who have confessed their sins

and God has cleared their record."

Psalm 32:01

 

Many people are driven by resentment and anger.

Resentment always hurts you more than it does the person you resent.

While your offender has probably forgotten the offense

and gone on with life,

you continue to stew in you pain,

perpetuating the past.

 

Listen: Those who have hurt you in the past cannot continue to hurt you now

unless you hold on to the pain through resentment.

Your past is past!

Nothing will change it.

For your own sake,

learn from it, and then let it go.

"To worry yourself to death with resentment

would be a fooish, senseless thing to do."

Job 5:2

 

Many people are driven by fear.

Fear is a self-imposed prison that

will keep from becoming what God intends for you to be.

You must move against it

with the weapons of faith and love.

"Well-formed love banishes fear.

Since fear is crippling, fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment

—is one not yet fully formed in love."

1 John 4:18

 

Many pelple are driven by materialism.

Possessions only provide temporary happiness.

Self-worth and net worth are not the same.

Your value is not determined by your valuables,

and God says the most valuable things in life are not things!

Real security can only be found in that

what can never be taken from you

—your relationship with God.

 

Many people are driven by the need for approval.

Being controlled by the opinions of others is

a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes for your life.

Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters."

Matthew 6:24

 

There are other forces that can drive your life

but all lead to the same dead end:

unused potential, unneccessary stress, and an unfulfilled life.

 

Nothing matters more than knowing God's purposes for your life,

and nothing can compensate for not knowing them

—not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure.

 

Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning,

activity without direction, and events without reason.

Without a purpose,

life is trivial, petty, and pointless.

 

 

The Benefits Of Purpose-Driven Living

 

There are five great benefits of living a purpose-driven life:

 

Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life.

When life has meaning, you can bear almost anything;

without it, nothing is bearable.

Without God, life has no purpose,

and without purpose, life has no meaning.

Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.

Isaiah complained,

"I have labored to no purpose;

I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing."

Isaiah 49:4

Job said,

"My life drags by—day after hopeless day"

Job 7:6

and

"I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone.

My life makes no sense."

Job 7:16

The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.

 

Hope is as essential to your life as air and water.

You need hope to cope.

Hope comes from having a purpose.

"I know what I am planning for you...

'I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you.

I will give you hope and a good future.'"

Jeremiah 29:11

"God... is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of

—infinitely beyound our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes."

Ephesians 3:20

 

Knowing your purpose simplifies your life.

It defines what you do and what you don't do.

Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which

you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources.

People who don't know their purpose try to do too much

—and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.

 

Purpose-driven living leads to a simpler lifestyle and a saner schedule.

"A pretentious, showy life is an empty life,

a plain and simple life is a full life."

Proverbs 13:7

It also leads to peace of mind:

"You, LORD, give perfect peace to those who

keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you."

Isaiah 26:3

 

Knowing your purpose focuses your life.

It concentrates your effort and energy on what's important.

You become effective by being selective.

Henry David Thoreau observed that

people live lives of "quiet desperation,"

but today a better description is

aimless distraction.

 

"Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly.

Make sure you understand what the Master wants."

Ephesians 5:17

"I am focusing all my energies on this one thing:

forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead."

Philippians 3;13

 

If you want your life to have impact, focus it!

Stop dabbling.

Stop trying to do it all. Do less.

Never confuse activity with productivity.

You can be busy without a purpose,

but what's the point?

Paul said,

"Let's keep focused on that goal,

those of us who want everything God has for us."

Philippians 3:15

 

Knowing your purpose motivates your life.

Purpose always produces passion.

Nothing energizes like a clear purpose.

 

George Bernard Shaw wrote,

"This is the true joy of life:

the being used up for a purpose

recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

being a force of nature

instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances,

complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

 

Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity.

Living to create an earthly legacy is a short-sighted goal.

A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy.

You weren't put on earth to be remembered.

You were put here to prepare for eternity.

"Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God...

Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God."

Romans 14:10b 12

 

From the Bible we can surmise that

God will ask us two crucial questions:

First, "what did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?"

The only thing that will matter is,

did you accept what Jesus did for you

and did you learn to love and trust him? 

Jesus said,

"I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 14:6

Second,"What did you do with what I gave you?"

What did you do with your life

—all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships,

and resources God gave you?

Did you spend them on yourself,

or did you use them for the purposes God made you for"

 

Preparing you for these two questions is the goal of this book.

The first question will determine

where you spend eternity.

The second question will determine

what you do in eternity.

 

By the end of this book

you will be ready to answer both questions.

 

 

 

 

 

DAY THREE

Thinking About My Purpose

 

Point to Ponder: Living on purpose is the path to peace.

Verse to Remember: "You, LORD, give perfect peace to

those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you."

Isaiah 26:3

Question to Consider; What would my family and friends say is

the driving force of my life? What do I want it to be?

 

 

p 27~35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.purposedrivenlife.com